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Dear Friend
Lord Yama, as Death is known in Hindu and Buddhist traditions, isn't one who just robs you of this life and all you cherish; he is one who can impart extraordinary wisdom and enlightenment if you have prepared to face him properly.
Your meeting with Lord Yama is inevitable. How have you prepared to face death?
As told long, long ago in the Mahabharata, King Yudhishthira was deep in a forest when he was confronted by a huge, terrible demon who tells him he'll chop off the king's head if he doesn't tell him what is truly the greatest mystery. The wise king answers that the greatest mystery is that humans, knowing that death is stalking them at every moment, live in ignorance as if they may never die. The demon immediately transforms himself into Lord Yama who had appeared to test the king's knowledge. He passed the test.
What wisdom comes from facing death consciously, fearlessly and humbly willing to learn?
The ancient Katha Upanishad reveals the answer.
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Katha Upanishad
Eknath Easwaran, translator
This Upanishad relates the dialogue between Lord Yama and Nachiketa, a devout boy who went in search of Lord Yama to redeem his father. Finally making his way to Lord Yama's realm he is questioned and tempted in various ways by Lord Yama.
Having tested young Nachiketa and found him fit to receive spiritual instruction, Yama, king of death, said:
1. The joy of the Atman ever abides,
but not what seems pleasant to the senses.
Both these, differing in their purpose, prompt
man to action. All is well for those who choose
the joy of the Atman, but they miss
the goal of life who prefer the pleasant.
2. Perennial joy or passing pleasure?
This is the choice one is to make always.
The wise recognize these two, but not
the ignorant. The first welcome what leads
to abiding joy, though painful at the time.
The latter run, goaded by their senses,
after what seems immediate pleasure.
3. Well have you renounced these passing pleasures
so dear to the senses, Nachiketa,
and turned your back on the way of the world
which makes mankind forget the goal of life.
4. Far apart are wisdom and ignorance.
The first leads one to Self-realization;
The second makes one more and more
estranged from his real Self. I regard you,
Nachiketa, worthy of instruction,
for passing pleasures tempt you not at all.
5. Ignorant of their ignorance, yet wise
in their own esteem, these deluded men,
proud of their vain learning, go round and round
6. Like the blind led by the blind. Far beyond
their eyes, hypnotized by the world of sense,
opens the way to immortality.
"I am my body; when my body dies,
I die." Living in this superstition
they fall life after life under my sway.
7. It is but few who hear about the Self.
Fewer still dedicate their lives to its
realization. Wonderful is the one
who speaks about the Self; rare are they
who make it the supreme goal of their lives.
Blessed are they who, through an illumined
Teacher, attain to Self-realization.
8. The truth of the Self cannot come through one
who has not realized that he is the Self.
The intellect cannot reveal the Self
beyond its duality of subject and object. They who see themselves in all
and all in them help others through spiritual
osmosis to realize the Self themselves.
9. This awakening you have known comes not
through logic and scholarship, but from
close association with a realized teacher.
Wise are you, Nachiketa, because you seek
the Self eternal. May we have more seekers like you!
From the Katha Upanishad
Eknath Easwaran, translator
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